Trivia Dominoes II — Play Off the Last Bit of Trivia — continued! (Part 1)

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7108

E. Clerihew Bentley was an English author and inventor of the clerihew, a humorous 4 line rhyming biographical poem.
One of the best known is
Sir Christopher Wren
Said, “I am going to dine with some men.
If anyone calls
Say I am designing St. Paul’s.”

Bentley wrote his first clerihew in science class, when he was 16:
Sir Humphrey Davy
Abominated gravy.
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered sodium.

Oops, ninja’d!
Bentley also wrote country house mystery stories set in homes such as Cotchford, which despite its name has not been a working farm for generations.

7109

Rolls Royce vs Bentley: which is superior? A Bentley is the best pick for those looking for a fast, performance-oriented car that does more than show off. Essentially, Bentleys are faster and sportier than Rolls Royce. Rolls Royce is more about the ultimate luxury and comfort on wheels.

7110

The original Rolls-Royce built both luxury automobiles, and aerospace products (particularly airplane engines). On the heels of the company’s collapse in the early 1970s, and takeover by the British government, the two divisions were separated into distinct corporations. Rolls-Royce Holdings continues to build airplane engines and other aerospace products; the Rolls-Royce auto marque has passed through several owners, and is currently held by BMW.

7111

Rose Royce is an American R&B and soul musical group. Founded in 1973 in Los Angeles under their original name of Total Concept Unlimited, the group found early success by performing the music of the soundtrack of the movie Car Wash.

7112

ROYCE’ Chocolate is based in Sapporo, Japan. Curious about what high-quality Japanese chocolate tastes like? Too bad. They don’t ship to individuals outside of Japan.

7113

Postwar studies showed that the Imperial Army’s defensive buildup on the large southern island of Kyushu, Japan was significantly larger by the late summer of 1945 than U.S. military planners had realized, suggesting that casualties in the event of an invasion there, as planned, would have been even worse than expected. The Japanese surrender after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that August meant that the invasion, Operation OLYMPIC, did not go forward after all.

7114

Since WWII, military submarines have been lost. The US Navy has lost at least four:

1949 USS Cochino
1958 USS Stickleback
1963 USS Thresher
1968 USS Scorpion (per List of lost United States submarines - Wikipedia)

The Russians/Soviets have lost at least 16:

S-117 (1952) †
M-200 Месть (Mest) (1956) †
M-256 (1957) †
К-19 (1961)
S-80 (1961)
B-37 (1962) †
K-3 Leninsky Komsomol (1962)
K-129 (1968) †
K-27 (1968) †
K-8 (1970) †
K-56 (1973)
S-178 (1981)
K-429 (1983)
K-219 (1986)
K-278 Komsomolets (1989)
Kursk (2000) (per List of lost Russian submarines
List of lost Russian or Soviet submarines - Wikipedia)

In 1968 alone, for submarines were lost: the Israeli submarine INS Dakar, the French submarine Minerve, the American submarine USS Scorpion, and the Soviet submarine K-129.

K-129 sank on 8 March 1968 approximately 1,560 nautical miles northwest of Oahu with 98 men aboard. The Soviet navy started searching for it, but they were looking in the wrong place. The US was able to triangulate the noise from what was likely an explosion aboard the sun, and the US Navy began a salvage operation called Project Azorian.

The wreck of K-129 was identified by USS Halibut northwest of Oahu at an approximate depth of 4,900 m (16,000 ft) on 20 August 1968. It was surveyed in detail by Halibut – reportedly with over 20,000 close-up photos.

Salvage of another country’s submarine was illegal and considered a hostile act. With deliberations escalating up to the office of the President, the US Government decided that the risk was worth the potential reward. The Soviets had some suspicions that the Americans were going to try and salvage their sun, but they dismissed it as impossible at those depends.

The US Navy built the purpose-built Hughes Glomar Explorer with the cover story being that it was to mine manganese nodules from the ocean floor. Billionaire Howard Hughes agreed to be the front man for this cover story, and the highly secret project proceeded. The media and the Soviets called the mining operation Project Jennifer. The mission was called Project Azorian.

According to one account, in July–August 1974, Hughes Glomar Explorer grappled with and was able to lift the forward half of the wreck of K-129, but as it was being raised, the claw suffered a critical failure, resulting in the forward section breaking into two pieces with the all-important sail area and center section falling back to the ocean floor. Thus, the center sail area and the after portions of K-129 were allegedly not recovered. The forward 40 feet, including nuclear torpedoes, was recovered, however.

Project Azorian was one of the most expensive and deepest secrets of the Cold War. Estimated costs were approximately $4.7B USD in current 2023 dollars.

7115

If I were going to those depths, I would need Depends too!

7116

“Depend” comes from Latin meaning to hang and in fact one meaning of “depend” in English is “to hand down” or “be suspended”.

7117

Cool trivia, @Bullitt!

In play: Modern suspenders were first popularized in 1822 by a London haberdasher named Albert Thurston. They immediately became very popular, and Samuel Clemens was granted a US patent in 1871, for “Adjustable and Detachable Straps for Garments” .

7118

On July 31, 1790, the first U.S. patent was issued to Samuel Hopkins for an improvement “in the making of Pot ash and Pearl ash by a new Apparatus and Process”. This patent was signed by then-President George Washington.

On June 19, 2018, the 10 millionth U.S. patent was issued to Joseph Marron for invention of a “Coherent LADAR System Using Intra-Pixel Quadrature Detection” to improve laser detection and ranging (LADAR). The patent was the first to receive the newly redesigned patent cover.

7119

I watched Amazon Prime Video, streaming: The Raising of the K-129. A documentary. Recommended!

7120

Oh jeez, really? You’re going to play off of depends?

:zany_face:

7121

Alright (sigh), in play:

Potash’s name derives from pot ash, which are plant ashes or wood ash soaked in water in a pot, the primary means of manufacturing potash before the Industrial Era. The word potassium is derived from potash.

Potassium ions are vital for the functioning of all living cells. The transfer of potassium ions across nerve cell membranes is necessary for normal nerve transmission; potassium deficiency and excess can each result in numerous signs and symptoms, including an abnormal heart rhythm and various electrocardiographic abnormalities.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are good dietary sources of potassium.

7122

The Manhattan Transfer’s 1981 vocal jazz/pop album Mecca for Moderns includes two thematically-linked songs, “(Wanted) Dead or Alive” and “Spies in the Night,” the latter of which includes a version of the James Bond theme.

7123

The James Bond Theme first appeared in Dr No in 1962. It is an instrumental arrangement, composed by Monty Norman. In each successive movie in the franchise, the theme song has included vocals.

7124

Monty Hall grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and attended the University of Manitoba, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree. Hall had intended to become a doctor, but was denied entry to medical school due to secret quotas limiting the number of Jewish students. Hall then turned to a broadcasting career, becoming a radio and TV host in Canada, before moving to the U.S., where he gained fame as the host of the long-running game show Let’s Make a Deal.

7125

Aaron Paul’s (of Breaking Bad) first known (or at least really really early) TV appearance was as a contestant on the game show The Price is Right.

7126

I had no idea!

Aaron Paul played a human being and several later host (robot) versions of that character in the final seasons of HBO’s sf series Westworld.

7127

There have been six Popes who have taken the name of Paul, which is the 12th-most common name for a Pope, tied with Adrian. The most recent of these was Pope Paul VI, who succeeded Pope John XXIII in 1963 and remained as pontiff until his death in August of 1978. In 1964, when the Pope flew to Jordan, it marked the first time that a pontiff had taken an airplane flight.